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Episode 13 - What I Learned This Week - 2008.07.23

Welcome to the Splintered Board Podcast!
 
Woodworking Class
 
So it’s been 2 weeks since a real Splintered Board episode.  I know the audience is still pretty small, but nonetheless, I hope no one went through the Splintered Board DT’s   I got back from STL yesterday afternoon after 5 hours of driving, dropped the kids off at their mother’s, then went to my house for an hour’s rest – where I proceeded to watch Norm put together, hmmm, something… I think I fell asleep.  Then I had to get my butt over to the school for woodworking class.

Last night’s class was pretty productive.  I actually learned a valuable lesson, taught the instructor something, and made a little bit of headway with the XLeg Table.

The valuable lesson I learned actually adds more fuel to the fire that is currently brewing about workshop safety.  I had a couple of boards that make up the table’s top that were cupped diagonally, so that there were 2 corners that were higher than the others.  So, remembering Dave Noftz’s episode and blog post on the thickness planer sled to repair this, I brought some ¼” plywood, wood screws and a piece of poplar scrap to class.  If anyone is not familiar with the technique/method, please give Dave his due and check out his description, it’s much better than I can describe.  You can find it at:  http://modernwoodshop.com/2008/06/18/flattening-wide-boards-with-a-planer-sled/

I explained what I was doing, to the instructor, and why just running the board through the planer is not going to fix the problem.  He thought it was a great idea. 

I got the jig together in less than 5 minutes (which included finding and getting out the drill and driver bit, plus putting it away again) and I was ready to feed it into the planer.  Here, I need to set the scene a little bit, because this is where/when I learned a valuable lesson.  The in feed side of the planer faces the jointer, which is about 7-8 feet away, the bandsaw which is at least 15 feet away, maybe 20, and then the instructor’s desk that’s at least 20-25 feet away. 

Also, remember I said the piece of scrap that I used as the lip on the sled was poplar?  Well, let’s take a moment to understand something.  Weeks ago I jointed the wood, then planed it then cut it to size.  A week later I planed it again to get out the cupping and twisting.  I had saved all of my scraps and took them home – that’s where this piece of scrap, for the jig, came from.  Anyone see a problem with this?  Go ahead, take a minute to think about it.

OK, here’s the deal.  The scrap piece was thicker than the piece I was sending through the planer, it was going to hit the knives.  No problem right?  Wrong!  The grain was going sideways.

The result was the lip getting ripped from the sled at about 6000 RPM and thrown across the shop – about 20 feet.  I’m not sure how hard it hit the bandsaw because there was no dent or noise, but it made it that far and splinters went clear under the instructor’s desk.

The instructor and I went over the design of the jig and both came to the same conclusion, the lip (or fence) needs to be lower that the knives, and if it has a grain pattern (because MDF doesn’t) it should go forward and backward.  We made up a plywood jig from shop scrap and the rest went just fine.  I just realized though, and Dave confirmed it, that we were using the jig backwards.  The fence side goes in first.  This would explain why I had so many problems with the board coming off of the sled.

I just want to say, though, that in this instance you had a beginner woodworker and an experienced woodworker trying something new, and there was still an accident.  That’s all I’ll say about that.

Other than the fireworks, I made a little bit of headway with the table itself.  I got the second mortise for the table top cut to the correct size.  Or at least wide enough to get the Thick Leg’s tenon through it.  I also cut into the third board of the table top to account for the same tenon.  This mortise looks great, I think.  I used forstner bits on the drill press to hollow it out, then used chisels to clean up the edges.  I think this took me about 30-45 minutes.  I couldn’t be happier with the results. Oh, and the tenon slid right into it on the second try – you know, after cleaning up the edges of the mortise.



Next up for the table is to glue up the boards to make the full table top.  Then I’ll trim the edges on the table saw.  After that, the through mortise on the Wide Leg, then the long mortise/groove on the bottom of the table top, and I should be done.
 
My Vacation

Thanks everyone for wishing me a nice vacation.  I really tried to have a nice one.  I really, really needed to get some relaxation in after the past 10 months – it’s been a very stressful time at work and in my private life.  We took the kids to Six Flags, we went fishing, and just did a lot of outdoor stuff.  Unfortunately, the weather down in STL last week was 90+ degrees with high humidity then entire time.  At least I dropped 3lbs!  Woohoo!
 
Future Podcast with Erik Pearson
 
Erik Pearson and I are still in the works, trying to get something together as a joint beginners’ podcast.  We’re hoping there will be a lot of listener interaction with us too.  So please stay tuned to the Novice Garage Woodworker and Splintered Board podcasts for more news.  We don’t have a name for the show yet, so any suggestions are always welcome.  You can send them either, or both of us, at splinteredboard@gmail.com, or garagewoodworker@gmail.com. 
 
Confusion 

I’d like to clear up a bit of confusion about my ‘Short Opinion Poll’ that I added while I was on vacation.  I just listened to it again and yeah, I guess it could be said that I came off as trying to start a little fight between some of the listeners that left comments.  That is definitely not my intention. 
To explain, I received a couple of comments that criticized my lack of familiarity with proper use of tools and techniques.  Safety, or lack thereof, was a large concern in these comments.  I agree that some of the things that I have done were pretty unsafe, but something that you inherently learn in the Army is to work safely.  It is always forefront in my mind when in the shop.  And, while I don’t want to get too much into what I want to share with you in upcoming episodes about this topic, please trust me that when I say I tried something risky on purpose, I tried to do it in the safest way possible.
Also, when I asked, ‘what gives you the ‘right’ as a woodworker to try something new?’  What I probably should have said was ‘what qualifies you to try out tools you’ve never touched before, or techniques you never even attempted on scrap before?’  I hope that clear up some confusion.
 
 
Remember to check out the blog, show notes and leave comments at www.splinteredboard.com for the occasional update and for links to pictures of projects. 

You can also take a look at random pictures of my current projects at http://photos.splinteredboard.com.

And, as always, feel free to send me a direct email at splinteredboard@gmail.com, or follow me on Twitter as rwaters73.